Good morning friends… One of the ways we’ve been getting practical and helping folks grow their business revenue is through the internet. I’ve been relying on David Johnson of Epiphany Marketing for our internet marketing expertise for the last year and the difference has been quite substantial. Our site use to get a few hundred unique visits per week. Now we are in the five figure range each week, and we’re ramping up for quite a bit more in the near future. I’ve asked David to share a few posts with you to give you some practical help. Hope you enjoy!

How to Drive Off Your Customers

Too busy at work?  More than enough revenue?  Here are some ways you can keep those pesky customers and prospects away…

 

#1: Make Sure Your Marketing is All About You
After all… people who want to spend money with you want to understand how your products & services benefit them, so if you focus on you, your company’s history, your features, etc., you’ll be sure to keep people from bugging you.  Whatever you do, don’t use pictures of the people most likely to actually buy from you, and avoid connecting their needs and wants to aspects of your business most likely to appeal to them.  Instead, just subtly communicate the notion that you’re in business for your own benefit and that you really aren’t interested in customers.  They’ll smell this a mile away and bug someone else instead.

#2: Ignore the Web
If your website hasn’t changed since the Clinton Administration, you’re on the right track here.  Even better: no web presence at all!  If you must have a website, make sure it doesn’t show up in any search engines… and whatever you do: don’t add fresh new content on a regular basis!  You should convey to visitors that you might already be out of business just by the aged look of your site.  To support this notion, hire a neighbor’s kid to build it — especially if he/she has no design experience whatsoever.  Websites that have that “we don’t care” feel do wonders at keeping people away.  If you’re still having response from your site, just bury the information that your customers want to find and add some contact forms to your site that do nothing and go nowhere.  If you can get them to generate an error message, it’s even more fun!

#3:  Keep Your Marketing Efforts Unfocused
If people have a clear idea of who you are and what you’re all about, they’re much more likely to pester you.  So, make sure that there’s no unifying theme to your marketing.  Buy ads at random, and always let whoever who sold you the ad design it for you.  This way, all of your ads will come out looking different from each other.  Make sure that your marketing doesn’t target any one type of customer, and stick with the “shotgun” approach.  Otherwise, your marketing might actually connect with someone, and then they’ll show up or call, expecting service from you.

I hope these tips are helpful for you.  We’ll continue this on another blog entry soon.  And… Michael and I will be holding another marketing teleseminar next week!  If you’re already busy enough and don’t want any new customers, don’t join us!  It could be dangerous!!

Michael here… watch your inbox on Monday morning for dates/times for next week’s event!

Have you signed up for one of the conference calls yet? Details will follow today’s guest content from David G. Johnson of Epiphany Marketing…

So far this week, we’ve focused on you and your identity as a business. Now it’s time to do something every bit as critical and just as important, if not more so: focus on your customer.

Something that continues to amaze me is how easy (and common) it is for businesses to lose touch with their customers and clients. Just as you must know your own identity, you must also get clear on the identity of your customer. This is both harder and easier than it sounds. Customers are diverse, which is why it seems to be a daunting task to keep in touch with who they are. That being said, it is critical to look for and discover the common factors in your customers that are keys to the big question: why are they buying from you?

One of the easiest - and most often overlooked - means of getting to that answer is to very simply ask the question. When was the last time you got a list of some of your best customers and called to ask them, out of the clear blue sky, “Why did you buy?”

Let me guarantee you something. If it’s been a while since you’ve done something like this, you may have some ideas about what they’ll say, but the answers will surprise you. You will learn something. And what you learn will be important.

The fact is, we tend to give lip service to the idea of listening to our customers. Listening to and getting to know them is something that occurs only deliberately and with focused, intentional effort. It’s a lot like a marriage. If it’s going to last, it’s going to take work. Sometimes it’s easier to let customers slip away due to neglect than it is to face the painful fact that they may tell you something that you don’t want to hear. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather hear that thing I don’t want to hear because I asked than by letting them speak with their dollars.

I may have to give up my pet project that is missing the mark. But, when there’s a good match between my identity (which I’m hopefully now clear on) and what the customers are begging for, shouldn’t that be my pet project anyway?

More on this subject tomorrow…

In case you missed my invitation, please join David and me for one of our conference calls tomorrow and Friday. Some of them are already nearly full, so you need to choose your best time slot right away!

“LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble: You will prepare their heart, You will cause Your ear to hear.” (Psalm 10:17)

For quite some time now, I have needed a clear directive from God on something. I wanted His guidance to make a very difficult decision that I have been agonizing over for a very long time. Biblical verses lined up on both sides of the decision. Godly people faced with a similar decision have come down on both sides of this issue. Even principle seemed to be on both sides though pragmatism leaned more on one side. I didn’t know what to do and the decision carries significant, life altering ramifications. Ever been there?

I spent Monday afternoon walking in the woods, praying, but hearing nothing. My wife had ordered a book by Mary Geegh, a missionary to India most of her life, called God Guides, made available from PrayAmerica.org which we received in the mail Wednesday. The focus of the book is what she calls “listening prayer.” The premise being, “When man listens, God speaks; When man obeys, God acts; When God acts, men change.”

I realized that so much of my prayer time was me telling God stuff He already knew and there was very little deliberate effort to silence those things competing for my focus and simply wait in silence to hear from Him. There was no blog yesterday because when I set my heart to wait and listen, I began to hear. He brought to mind a story I had read in God Guides and I heard him say “Go and do likewise.”

That was truly an answer but I needed more so I asked Him to confirm this by telling me which verse that was. I heard a verse and indeed it was so. Because of the magnitude of this decision, I asked Him for another verse that dealt with this issue. Immediately He told me. Knowing what I had to do, I asked Him for one more, just to be double-dog sure. He gave it to me. Even though I had not wanted to make that choice, I obeyed right away… consuming the rest of my morning.

How this will unfold is unknown to me, but after years of struggling with this question, I had my answer. I would be foolish to disobey.

Hello friend,

I hope you saw my e-mail from last Thursday. Just in case you didn’t, I’ve forwarded a copy of it to you below. We’ve offered a copy of the hardcover book Rich Church — Poor Church as a FREE Bonus Gift to a limited number of purchasers of the “Christian Wealth Building” seminar. As of today, there are 314 left… so I urge you to get your copy today!

Also, don’t forget about the introductory price expiring this Friday!  You save $70!!

Blessings,

Michael

Unlock the Secrets of Creating Wealth
And Harness the Power of Money to Influence Everything

RICH CHURCH - POOR CHURCH

A Candid Look at Christian Wealth Building
(AN URGENT MUST-READ FOR EVERY BELIEVER – PLEASE FORWARD TO YOUR FRIENDS)

Why do the Heathen Prosper?

Because they want to and are not conflicted about it! While the Church debates the entire subject of whether Christians can or should prosper, and if so, then how much is appropriate and what is too much, the rest of the world is not so conflicted and thus control most of the planet’s resources. We think it’s about the car we drive, the home we live in, the clothes we wear, etc. How small minded we have been to have focused on some of the trappings of wealth, while ignoring the larger purpose of wealth which is to establish His covenant. (Deuteronomy 8:18)

Keep reading to learn about the covenant purpose of wealth and how you can get a complimentary copy*of the groundbreaking new book, Rich Church - Poor Church.

The Power to Create Wealth is to Establish the Covenant

If we are Christ’s, then we are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. God still wants to see His covenant established in our lives, but that won’t happen if we neglect it, are ignorant of it or simply don’t believe or understand it. So here’s a quick overview of the sevenfold promise to us through Abraham. Think of them as opportunities waiting for us to act upon. Allow me to give a 21st-century application to the promises so we can begin to enter into them…

The 7-Fold Promise in the Abrahamic Covenant

1. “You shall be the father of many nations”: This speaks of creative ability. The ability to create multiple lasting enterprises. This is applied creative ability and those with that gift can change the world. It takes money to turn creativity into a lasting enterprise.
2. “Your name shall be Abraham”: This speaks of greatly enlarged vision. By changing Abram’s name which meant “high, exalted father” to Abraham, meaning “father of a multitude”, God greatly enlarged his vision. Visionaries will lead the future. It takes money to fund your vision.
3. “I will make you exceedingly fruitful”: This speaks of abundance. Fruitfulness is self-replicating abundance produced without undue strain but rather by the blessing of God. It takes money to plant that first crop, to open that first office, to publish that first book, etc.
4. “I will make nations of you”: This speaks of strength. God will equip us with strength that comes from that which every joint supplies in the community of believers we call the Body of Christ. It takes money to form the infrastructure that ties a community together. It takes money to build a community.
5. “Kings will come from you”: This speaks of leadership and authority. Kings go to war to capture territory or defend what they already have. It takes money to wage war and capture market share.
6. “I will give to you and to your posterity after you, the land”: This speaks of ownership, wealth. He who controls the land, controls what’s on it. It takes money to acquire land and determine what is allowed to flourish there, whether good or evil.
7. “I will be their God”: This speaks of lordship. God is our protector, our Lord and our Father. As our Lord, he requires us to be generous, to give to others, to help widows and orphans, support ministries, etc. That also requires money.

Do You Get it Yet?

The purpose of wealth is so we can be like the tree planted by the river, giving fruit in due season and where the fowls of the air find shelter. God wants us to be the head and not the tail, providing shelter to those in need and leadership in everything pertaining to life and godliness. It’s the enemy of our soul that wants us broke and without influence. He would prefer us to bow the knee to him and find shelter under his shade, remain under his sway and not challenge him for control of the planet’s resources. Who are you going to bow to? Make no mistake. This is not about personal possessions as he would have you believe. It’s about influence and who controls the gates or mind molders of the nation. He who controls the gates, controls the city!

Click here for details on how you can get your complimentary copy* of Rich Church - Poor Church

No One Understands This Better Than the Jewish People…

Of all the people groups in the world, perhaps none is less conflicted about wealth and influence than the Jewish people. In October 2007, the Jerusalem Post published details of a study done by Vanity Fair which lists “the world’s most powerful people.” According to the publication, “…the top 100 consisted of the bankers and media moguls, publishers and image makers who shape the lives of billions. It’s an exclusive, insular club, one whose influence stretches around the globe but is concentrated strategically in the highest corridors of power.”; 51 of Vanity Fair’s top 100 list are Jewish.

We live in a world where Christians outnumber Jews 400 to 1, yet they occupy 51% of the top 100 most powerful positions on the planet. I believe it is safe to say that we have plenty to learn from the olive tree into which we were grafted and we could start by knowing the covenant and walking it out here and now.

A Seed Change is Coming

It’s time for Christians to regain some of the ground we have vacated and start building schools and colleges that teach economics and finance from a Biblical worldview. It’s time for Christians to stop complaining about the bias in media and starting owning the media! What if we flooded the world with excellent movies like The Passion of the Christ or Facing the Giants instead of complaining about the flood of filth now engulfing society? What if we owned the land? We would have say over what gets built there. But for the most part, we are the tenants, the tail, the beggars in the land. And it’s time for that to change! Poverty is a curse, not a blessing. It’s not so much an outer condition but rather an inner condition fortified by fear resulting in outward lack. If you want to shake poverty off of you, you must first get it out of you. Would you like to know how?

Introducing Rich Church – Poor Church

John Muratori, a recognized authority in organizational management and strategic planning, the founder of multiple companies and non-profit corporations as well as being the Senior Pastor of a thriving worship center in Connecticut has written a groundbreaking book called Rich Church - Poor Church. The content is so rich, I asked John if we could do a teleseminar together to “unpack” more of the great wealth of information and make it available to you. The seminar, done in interview format, explores not only the causes of poverty, but also unveils twelve laws of wealth creation every believer needs to know! We call it Christian Wealth Building – A Candid Look at Rich Church – Poor Church.

The ideas discussed in this seminar are powerful and life transforming and will help you capture the seven gates of influence in your city or nation! No longer will you need to be the supplicant serving at the pleasure of the wicked, but you can be the head and not the tail, transforming the culture and shaping the future. With John Muratori’s permission, I have secured 500 copies of this 300 + page book to give away FREE to the first 500 people to purchase the Christian Wealth Building Teleseminar. Click here for details and to order your download or CD’s NOW. They won’t last long!

Blessings,

Michael Q. Pink, Founder

Selling Among Wolves, LLC

P.S. The FREE copies* of Rich Church — Poor Church won’t last long.
Click here to find out how to get your FREE copy* right now.

*P.P.S. The book is my FREE gift to you when you purchase the seminar (either the download or the audio CDs) in time.

Unlock the Secrets of Creating Wealth
And Harness the Power of Money to Influence Everything

RICH CHURCH - POOR CHURCH

A Candid Look at Christian Wealth Building
(AN URGENT MUST-READ FOR EVERY BELIEVER – PLEASE FORWARD TO YOUR FRIENDS)

Why do the Heathen Prosper?

Because they want to and are not conflicted about it! While the Church debates the entire subject of whether Christians can or should prosper, and if so, then how much is appropriate and what is too much, the rest of the world is not so conflicted and thus control most of the planet’s resources. We think it’s about the car we drive, the home we live in, the clothes we wear, etc. How small minded we have been to have focused on some of the trappings of wealth, while ignoring the larger purpose of wealth which is to establish His covenant. (Deuteronomy 8:18)

Keep reading to learn about the covenant purpose of wealth and how you can get a complimentary copy of the groundbreaking new book, Rich Church - Poor Church.

The Power to Create Wealth is to Establish the Covenant

If we are Christ’s, then we are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. God still wants to see His covenant established in our lives, but that won’t happen if we neglect it, are ignorant of it or simply don’t believe or understand it. So here’s a quick overview of the sevenfold promise to us through Abraham. Think of them as opportunities waiting for us to act upon. Allow me to give a 21st-century application to the promises so we can begin to enter into them…

The 7-Fold Promise in the Abrahamic Covenant

1. “You shall be the father of many nations”: This speaks of creative ability. The ability to create multiple lasting enterprises. This is applied creative ability and those with that gift can change the world. It takes money to turn creativity into a lasting enterprise.
2. “Your name shall be Abraham”: This speaks of greatly enlarged vision. By changing Abram’s name which meant “high, exalted father” to Abraham, meaning “father of a multitude”, God greatly enlarged his vision. Visionaries will lead the future. It takes money to fund your vision.
3. “I will make you exceedingly fruitful”: This speaks of abundance. Fruitfulness is self-replicating abundance produced without undue strain but rather by the blessing of God. It takes money to plant that first crop, to open that first office, to publish that first book, etc.
4. “I will make nations of you”: This speaks of strength. God will equip us with strength that comes from that which every joint supplies in the community of believers we call the Body of Christ. It takes money to form the infrastructure that ties a community together. It takes money to build a community.
5. “Kings will come from you”: This speaks of leadership and authority. Kings go to war to capture territory or defend what they already have. It takes money to wage war and capture market share.
6. “I will give to you and to your posterity after you, the land”: This speaks of ownership, wealth. He who controls the land, controls what’s on it. It takes money to acquire land and determine what is allowed to flourish there, whether good or evil.
7. “I will be their God”: This speaks of lordship. God is our protector, our Lord and our Father. As our Lord, he requires us to be generous, to give to others, to help widows and orphans, support ministries, etc. That also requires money.

Do You Get it Yet?

The purpose of wealth is so we can be like the tree planted by the river, giving fruit in due season and where the fowls of the air find shelter. God wants us to be the head and not the tail, providing shelter to those in need and leadership in everything pertaining to life and godliness. It’s the enemy of our soul that wants us broke and without influence. He would prefer us to bow the knee to him and find shelter under his shade, remain under his sway and not challenge him for control of the planet’s resources. Who are you going to bow to? Make no mistake. This is not about personal possessions as he would have you believe. It’s about influence and who controls the gates or mind molders of the nation. He who controls the gates, controls the city!

Click here for details on how you can get your complimentary copy of Rich Church - Poor Church

No One Understands This Better Than the Jewish People…

Of all the people groups in the world, perhaps none is less conflicted about wealth and influence than the Jewish people. In October 2007, the Jerusalem Post published details of a study done by Vanity Fair which lists “the world’s most powerful people.” According to the publication, “…the top 100 consisted of the bankers and media moguls, publishers and image makers who shape the lives of billions. It’s an exclusive, insular club, one whose influence stretches around the globe but is concentrated strategically in the highest corridors of power.”; 51 of Vanity Fair’s top 100 list are Jewish.

We live in a world where Christians outnumber Jews 400 to 1, yet they occupy 51% of the top 100 most powerful positions on the planet. I believe it is safe to say that we have plenty to learn from the olive tree into which we were grafted and we could start by knowing the covenant and walking it out here and now.

A Seed Change is Coming

It’s time for Christians to regain some of the ground we have vacated and start building schools and colleges that teach economics and finance from a Biblical worldview. It’s time for Christians to stop complaining about the bias in media and starting owning the media! What if we flooded the world with excellent movies like The Passion of the Christ or Facing the Giants instead of complaining about the flood of filth now engulfing society? What if we owned the land? We would have say over what gets built there. But for the most part, we are the tenants, the tail, the beggars in the land. And it’s time for that to change! Poverty is a curse, not a blessing. It’s not so much an outer condition but rather an inner condition fortified by fear resulting in outward lack. If you want to shake poverty off of you, you must first get it out of you. Would you like to know how?

Introducing Rich Church – Poor Church

John Muratori, a recognized authority in organizational management and strategic planning, the founder of multiple companies and non-profit corporations as well as being the Senior Pastor of a thriving worship center in Connecticut has written a groundbreaking book called Rich Church - Poor Church. The content is so rich, I asked John if we could do a teleseminar together to “unpack” more of the great wealth of information and make it available to you. The seminar, done in interview format, explores not only the causes of poverty, but also unveils twelve laws of wealth creation every believer needs to know! We call it Christian Wealth Building – A Candid Look at Rich Church – Poor Church.

The ideas discussed in this seminar are powerful and life transforming and will help you capture the seven gates of influence in your city or nation! No longer will you need to be the supplicant serving at the pleasure of the wicked, but you can be the head and not the tail, transforming the culture and shaping the future. With John Muratori’s permission, I have secured 500 copies of this 300 + page book to give away FREE to the first 500 people to purchase the Christian Wealth Building Teleseminar. Click here for details and to order your download or CD’s NOW. They won’t last long!

Blessings,

Michael Q. Pink, Founder

Selling Among Wolves, LLC

P.S. The FREE copies of Rich Church — Poor Church won’t last long.
Click here to find out how to get your FREE copy right now.

“Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the armor of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; Remember the picture. Babylon had impregnable walls 75 feet thick, 200 feet tall with 100 gates of solid brass which were surrounded by a wide ditch of flowing water from the Euphrates. But the Babylonians had been enjoying a night of feasting and some fool left the gate open affording Cyrus the opportunity to march right in take over with barely a fight.

There is a powerful lesson here. You can have every outward sign of strength. You can go to church every time the door is open and do all manner of good works. But if you have left a gate open, you are vulnerable to attack. Consider for a moment the eye gate… What do you allow your eyes to look upon? Job made a covenant with his eyes so that his thoughts would not be upon a maiden. (Job 31:1) Do you set your eyes upon riches which certainly take flight like the eagle? (Pro 23:5) There are many things clamoring for the focus of our eye gate but to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple (Psa 27:4) surpasses them all.

Your life may be a fortress of good works and good intentions, but if you leave your gate open… if you feast upon the wrong things, you may find one day, your city, your life has been taken over by hostile forces and you were unable to put up any serious resistance. What have you been feasting on?

I am wrapping up my four part series on personal productivity as modeled by the rainforest. In the previous three sessions, we discussed the importance of Eliminating the Unnecessary, Automating the Mundane and Delegating the Tactical. Now I want to get to your core competency as the CEO of your life. What are you the very best at? What gives you remarkable fulfillment? This is what you really want to do, free from the time wasters and time consumers that have plagued your life. It’s where you soar at the stratospheric level like an eagle overseeing the fields and forests, planning the next move from a place of strategic advantage.

In the rainforest, plants have certain designated responsibilities that only they can fulfill. They are wired or created to fulfill those roles and everything about their DNA beckons them to fulfill their primary purpose. The fourth law, therefore, is to Designate. By that I mean, designate your time, your resources, your heart, your mind, your strength to that thing you have burning in your heart, but as much as possible, do it at a strategic level.

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“Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the armor of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of bronze, and cut asunder the bars of iron: And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.” (Isa 45:1-3)

For the next several emails, I am going to break out this passage for all of us to consider. It has profound implications for believers, but I will focus my remarks on the business community. God gave this prophecy to Cyrus — a heathen king — who was given the task to overthrow Babylon and rescue the tribes of Judah and Benjamin from their captivity. It was an awesome task. The walls were seventy-five feet thick and two hundred feet high, surrounded by a wide ditch full of water, and defended with one hundred gates of brass. It was considered impregnable and Cyrus well knew the difficulty of his assignment.

To be clear, I know this was a word given to Cyrus and had literal fulfillment, but as so often true in Scripture, there is spiritual truth to be gleaned from historical happenings. In fact, oftentimes the historical event happened as an intended foreshadow of a future event. Consider Abraham who was about to sacrifice his only son Isaac as a clear picture of God later sending His only son to die for us.

Back to Cyrus, he was given a task that was so challenging, so seemingly impossible that it required God to go before him. By the way, God did go before Cyrus. The Babylonians had been feasting the night before the attack and forgot to shut the gates to the city! God truly opened the two-leaved gates for Cyrus! So here’s my question to you today… Has God given you an assignment that requires His presence to go before you to complete or are you working on something that sheer determination can get you through? If you can do it in your strength, what have you really accomplished? If it requires His presence, the second question must naturally follow; did He ordain you for this task? If He did, He will go before you and you can follow Him in the garden of His turbulence. (To be continued.)

We have been talking about how the rainforest is so incredibly productive. How does it stay so focused on the most important tasks it has like breathing in CO2 and exhaling fresh Oxygen for us to breathe? For the last two weeks we talked about the first two laws… Eliminate the Unnecessary and Automate the Mundane. These two laws, when properly applied, will create a vacation for you in every working day! But there’s more…

Once you eliminate the unnecessary and automate the mundane, it’s time to Delegate the Tactical. Don’t make the mistake of delegating to others the things you should have eliminated or automated. If you do, you’re just wasting their time and indirectly, yours. In the rainforest, there are many pests that consume the productivity of plants. While many plants have devised their own way of dealing with those pests, on some occasions, plants actually delegate the defense of their leaves to others. They hire ants by paying them with nectar. The ants get hooked on the income (the nectar) and ward off all potential intruders like caterpillars, grasshoppers, grubs, etc.

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I want to continue the discussion on intensity. Where does it come from? I submit that intensity is the result of FOCUS. When I was a child, I guess I had a cruel streak or at the very least an insensitive streak. On a lazy summer afternoon, we would grab a magnifying glass and go looking for ants.

Some of you already know where I am going with this. We would find some slow moving ant near an ant hill and try to focus the light of the sun upon the ant. If we were way out of focus, there was no effect. If we were nearly in focus, it got us excited, but the ant didn’t seem to pay any attention.

Read the rest of this entry »